Owens & Minor Inc at JPMorgan Healthcare Conference (Virtual) Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Michael Roman Minchak - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Yes. Thank you for walking us through the presentation, Ed. It was very informative. So I'll just start the Q&A portion. So first question, your Americas-based PPE manufacturing footprint has really been a key advantage during the pandemic. I was just wondering if you can sort of walk through what you've been able to do to increase production, where you stand in terms of your ability to drive additional productivity improvements? Do you have opportunities to continue to optimize those existing production lines? And how much more gains are there? And then just as a follow-up to that, do you plan on adding additional lines? And how much of an investment does that require? And how -- sort of how quickly can those get up and running?

Question: Michael Roman Minchak - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Great. I appreciate all the detail there. Maybe just a question in terms of the supply/demand imbalance for PPE. I mean, how long do you think this is going to last? We've seen a range of estimates around there when supply ultimately catches up with this heightened level of demand, but just sort of wanted to get your thoughts on that.

Question: Michael Roman Minchak - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Got it. Can you talk about pricing trends in the spot market for PPE? Are they still significantly elevated? And sort of once that supply/demand situation does rebalance, whether it's a year or 2 out, what's your assumption around where those spot prices go relative to sort of the historical pre-pandemic levels? And if they do sort of settle at sort of rates above that, given that you've sort of maintained pricing to customers over the course of the pandemic, does that give you some room to maybe even increase your prices? Just sort of trying to understand the dynamics at play there.

Question: Michael Roman Minchak - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Got it. And then maybe shifting gears to just sort of the core acute care distribution business. I guess, what is the sort of typical contract duration there? I assume that since you've been able to fill orders at pre-pandemic levels and maintain that pricing, I guess, as we think about the selling season, I'm assuming that's driven some goodwill from your customers and maybe interest from your customers. So just kind of trying to understand what the new business pipeline looks like. Has the pandemic sort of delayed the RFP process given the near-term focus there?

Question: Michael Roman Minchak - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Got it. Can you talk a little bit about the opportunity around Byram? It's been sort of consistently delivering very strong results. Is there a significant private label opportunity within that business? Do you see opportunities to add additional product lines? And I guess, just maybe one question about Medicare and Medicaid, how do we think about the potential for reimbursement risk there?

Question: Michael Roman Minchak - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Got it. And then I guess as we're sort of approaching the bottom of the hour, maybe just a question for Andy. So you previously discussed double-digit EPS growth in 2021. Obviously, it's impressive given the tough comp you're coming up against if you're a very strong 2020. Can you talk about the key drivers and also about sort of the cadence of the earnings growth over the course of the year? I know there's typically some seasonality. Do you expect to exit the year at a double-digit growth rate?

Question: Michael Roman Minchak - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Got it. So it looks like we're at the end of our time. I do want to thank Ed and Andy for the great insights they provided today. And also, just to wish everyone good luck with the rest of their conference this week, and have a good day.